Tag Archives: Alisaie

FFXIV: The Ambassador

Leave a Reply

My family got me cat-shaped fidget squishies for my birthday and they’re the greatest thing ever

Chapter 71: Blackest Night

 

Chapter 72: The Ambassador

Achiyo disembarked from the ship into the Doman Enclave and looked around in amazement. It had changed greatly since she had left so abruptly on the eve of Doma’s liberation. Within the low protective walls there now rose a multitude of new buildings, and she could hear the sounds of yet more construction – sawing, hammering, foremen giving orders. A few fishers sat on the docks, though their efforts were in idle pleasure – further down the dock was an actual fishing boat unloading its silvery cargo.

The Garlean ambassadors had made pleasant remarks along the entire trip, praising the architecture, and the industriousness of the people, and lamenting the destruction of war that the industriousness sought to mend. They seemed genuine enough, especially the third-eyed Garlean with the glasses, who nearly fell out of the skiff at one point peering at a distant manor on the shore. Young Asahi frowned at him, and the Garlean – Maxima, he introduced himself – stayed put after that. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Blackest Night

Leave a Reply

I love the DRK 70 quest so much. 

The concert went well! I made an annoying audible mistake in Zanarkand, but everything else went pretty good (and the audience was making noise anyway so fingers crossed they missed it). And then I wiped out from concentrating so hard. Took a very rare extra day off this week and finished this chapter with it. Was hoping to get further into 4.2, but at least we’re moving.

Chapter 70: The Sword of Tamehiro

 

Chapter 71: Blackest Night

It had been three days since Vivienne had returned Myste-less from Gyr Abania, and she was practically prowling the street below the Forgotten Knight while Sidurgu and Rielle watched her. “…Godsdammit, Myste. Does he want me to track him down, or what?”

“He needs to return the remainder of the aether he stole from you, if nothing else,” Sidurgu said. “He said that when this was finished, naught would remain of him? Bloody vague and ominous, to say the least… We’ll just have to press him for answers when we find him.” Continue reading →

FFXIV: The Sword of Tamehiro

Leave a Reply

Sorry fic readers that I was gone so long! You know, holidays, vacation, and I found myself struggling to find the spark of inspiration I originally had for the first half of the chapter. But fun news, I’m going to be playing in a FF concert next weekend! A big, official, orchestral one! Boy the ticket prices are exorbitantly nerd-taxed (average of $100, which is rather ridiculous – you can see world famous superstar violinist Ray Chen for less than that). I’m really excited, though I’ve been practicing like mad – the arrangement of Aerith’s Theme, for instance, is quite tricky (many ripply arpeggios), and they only gave me 10 days to learn the music. (now I wanna play FFVII… we’ll see if it works on my PC, I’ve been struggling to game ever since I switched to Linux)

If you haven’t seen the Trash Taste podcast interview with Koji, I recommend it – Koji goes into quite a bit of detail on the localization process and it’s very interesting. The guidelines they set for language use for tone and consistency are just as strict as I thought they might be, and then some! (Though not without perhaps some missteps – nobody wants to translate Urianger, lol!)

Chapter 69: Hinganisme

 

Chapter 70: The Sword of Tamehiro

“Okay, so you said this is perfectly safe,” R’nyath said to Tam, as they collected in the aetheryte plaza of Revenant’s Toll.

“I mean, ‘e survived t’other way, so how bad can it be?” Chuchupa said.

Tam grinned. “Just group up with me and we’ll get there.” Continue reading →

FFXIV: Reunion

Leave a Reply

Yesssssss the return of the king, as the memes say!

I’d kind of hoped to put in Raubahn’s flashbacks in the previous chapter, to pair up his memories of Lyse’s father with Achiyo’s last Echo involving her ‘father’, but eh the pacing ended up not really working out.

Thancred’s line about leather waistcoats… research tells me is a Monkey Island reference (to go with the ridiculous breath holding). (I’ve played several of the Monkey Island games, but it’s been quite a while. That sort of puzzle game isn’t really my cup of tea.)

Chapter 62: Legacies

 

Chapter 63: Reunion

The first thing to do was to warn the army of the experiments they’d encountered. The Empire did like building sinister laboratories everywhere they could – they’d built one beneath Doma Castle, for kami’s sake – and if they were creating machines that were part-beast, or worse, part-Spoken in one place, they could be creating them elsewhere. Or who knew which of their experiments had been approved and put into production. Their very horror would grant them an edge, let alone their combat capabilities. Everyone needed to know. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Legacies

Leave a Reply

I forgot how long the Radiata bit was, and I couldn’t figure out how to abridge the WHM quest, so this is likely the third-last chapter of 4.0.

TIL that ‘cermet‘ is a real thing?? Man I know a little bit about a lot of things but I didn’t know that. I thought FFXIV made it up for the Garleans to use.

Estinien’s cannon-slaying is probably the best moment in all of Stormblood. He’s the Azure Dragoon, after all. (Jocat guitar sting)

Chapter 61: Bitter Dreams

 

Chapter 62: Legacies

Rinala walked through the forest of the Fringes, head down, tail low, lost in thought. Trying to figure out how her life had fallen down around her. How she had lost herself to the point that she couldn’t do her job anymore. That the Scions didn’t want her around anymore. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Bitter Dreams

Leave a Reply

I know people have complained that several characters post-ARR are basically whole new characters, and I think it’s true. I feel Lyse got the better end of the deal in the character development hand-outs; she went from ‘bubble-brained comic relief’ to ‘oh crap I have to adult now, it’s scary but I’ll do my best’. Maybe it’s a bit too drastic, but you know what ARR was a bit cartoony overall so I don’t think it’s out of step with the general tone shift. But Thancred went from ‘mischievous perv with an angsty side’ to ‘Batman’, and not even a fun Batman like Estinien. And just to reiterate… I really don’t like his haircut and chin scruff. (Alphinaud’s character development is, of course, perfect, so needs no discussion.)

Chapter 60: The Fall of Doma Castle

 

Chapter 61: Bitter Dreams

R’nyath ducked through the press of soldiers, looking for his fearless leader. “Achiyo! Hey, hey, over here!”

She turned, startled, from where she had been talking to Raubahn. “R’nyath? What is it?” Continue reading →

FFXIV: The Fall of Doma Castle

Leave a Reply

Soundtracks for this chapter include not only Gates of the Moon, the Doma Castle dungeon theme, but also Thundering Chariot from Honkai Star Rail cuz Chinese boss fight music is funnnn : D (interesting they both involve traditional plucked string instruments, Western orchestral body, and an electric guitar for added gritty texture?)

The inside of Doma Castle has gotten glowed up with the lighting enhancements! It looks great!

My tablet keyboard has been increasingly unreliable the past couple months (especially the E and L keys); I’m pretty good at spotting typos but I’m not perfect so if you see something, feel free to point it out.

Chapter 59: Flames of the Past

 

Chapter 60: The Fall of Doma Castle

Achiyo had just finished her last gear check and was rising to leave the Scions’ dorm in the House of the Fierce when she heard her name called. “Achiyo-chan? Where are you?”

“I am in here,” she answered, and Tori appeared at the door, looking flustered with all her children around her. “Is something amiss?” Continue reading →

FFXIV: Flames of the Past

Leave a Reply

I know I’m being pretty speedy through all this… I miss Aymeric, is all.

Chapter 58: The Naadam

 

Chapter 59: Flames of the Past

“As if we’d lose to the likes of him!” Lyse cried, watching the Imperial Roegadyn officer flee back towards Doma. “And we’re only gonna get stronger. Stronger and stronger until we’re strong enough to take back everything they stole!”

“Hear, hear!” R’nyath echoed. The Xaela roared in triumph.

Hien turned to Cirina. “I have kept my promise, Cirina. They are yours to command.” Continue reading →

FFXIV: Endless Sky

Leave a Reply

There are a lot of nice little story bits in the Azim Steppe, like when Lyse tells some kid what a ‘nation’ is, but… I don’t have a lot to say about them.

Honorifics are a bit tricky for me in this part. The English dubs/subs translate the titles and honorifics to English for ease of the unfamiliar, even for characters who would probably use them (it would make perfect sense for Yugiri to call Hien “Hien-sama”), so how weeby culturally appropriate for the implied in-game culture do I want to get by putting some of them back in?

I’ve been listening to the J-rock band Cidergirl again recently, and I think the lead singer seems to have a voice type very much like the Miqo’te voice type that R’nyath has. They did the opening song, Cinderella, for the anime Komi Can’t Communicate, which I enjoyed very much, but they’ve got more super-happy music, and R’nyath is specifically adopting Saityen.

Chapter 56: The Second Duel

 

Chapter 57: Endless Sky

The Scions, the Doman Liberation Front, and the villagers of Namai did not retreat far at first. Nearly everyone was in high spirits, talking animatedly. Isse was fairly bubbling with excitement, his face alight in a way Achiyo had not seen before. He looked so young and kind when he smiled. “Can you believe it? We faced the crown prince himself and lived to tell the tale! You’ve no idea what this means for us. Everyone’s talking about getting more weapons and armour and… and… And we’re not going to stop until we’ve taken back our homeland!” Continue reading →

FFXIV: The Second Duel

Leave a Reply

I’m sure Master Kamui is intended to be the ‘harmless old perv’ archetype, but I’m in no mood to be merciful to him today : P

I made an outline for the rest of 4.0! Should be complete in roughly 8 chapters, including this one. Maybe fewer tbh. This one was not super inspiring to me so my apologies if it seems kind of bleh. That’s why it took so long for its short length…

Chapter 55: The Land of Dead Hope

 

Chapter 56: The Second Duel

Oboro had taken Jacke, Tsubame, and Rinala to visit an old master of his village, who lived high in the mountains. But Master Kamui immediately sent the men away again, to hunt beasts to turn into medicine for him, while inviting ‘the little swallow and the kitty-cat’ to remain behind. Rinala would just as well have gone hunting too, but Tsubame had shot her an anxious look, and so she stayed. Jacke and Oboro departed again, Jacke grumbling irritably the whole way. “Enlightenment, my arse! This old coot’s a real piece o’ work…” Continue reading →